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Fancy mourns Don Bardgett

Don Bardgett, the well-known foreign bird breeder and Cage & Aviary Birds contributor, has died at the age of 83.

Mr Bardgett and his wife Irene worked as a partnership for many years and were leading figures in the Foreign Bird League (FBL), the Yorkshire Foreign Bird Society (YFBS) and the Waxbill Finch Society (WFS). Mr Bardgett died on August 1 of heart and kidney failure after a short spell in Bradford Royal Infirmary.

His widow, Irene, said: “Don died in his sleep, which is how we’d all like to go. We enjoyed all the shows and all the lifelong friends we made in the fancy. I believe our best achievement together was getting the first UK breeding of the whiskered lorikeet in 1998. It hasn’t hit me yet. It’s as if he’s still in the hospital.”

Don and Irene recorded three FBL first breedings: the red-headed pytilia (1980), grey-crowned mannikin (1996) and the whiskered lorikeet, which was also a first UK breeding. Don was the resident foreign bird expert for Cage & Aviary Birds for many years.  Mr and Mrs Bardgett were both inducted into the National Council for Aviculture roll of honour and awarded the Avicultural Society medal.

Darren Sefton, Don’s protégé and long-time friend, a fellow foreign birdkeeper and now editor of the FBL magazine, said: “Don meant a huge amount to me. I was 16 when I first met him and I’m 45 now. All of what I’m doing now was steered by Don. He encouraged me to breed birds and write for the magazine. He always gave juniors lots of time, as he understood they were the future of the fancy. He allowed us to make our own mistakes but always encouraged us.”